Cognitive Antecedents of “Good” Food Safety Practices Alan S. Levy Ph.D. Senior Scientist FDA/CFSAN Washington, DC 20202

Overview of Talk l H: Improvements in reported food safety practices must be due to changes in consumer knowledge, attitudes, or experience. But which ones? l It might help design effective food safety education, if we could identify the cognitive antecedents of safe behavior.

Overview of Analysis l 1998 FDA/USDA Food Safety Survey data. l 2SLS regression with instrumental variables l Food safety practices = B’s(cognitive + demographic variables) with personal food preferences (I.e., prepare raw fish) as instrument.

Summary measures of individual’s food safety practices: l Handling--based on 3 foods, 7 Qs l Consumption--based on 14 foods l Cooling--based on 2 foods, 4 Qs

Large set of cognitive measures l Prior experience variables l Knowledge variables l Risk perceptions l Information search measures

Overview of Results l Controlled for demographics l Controlled for self-selection bias l Controlled for other cognitive variables l Direct effects of cognitive variables that remain identify likely antecedents of ‘good’ food safety behavior.

Results: Risk Perceptions: Personal Behavior Level

Personal behavior risk perceptions: How likely are you to get sick? l If you forgot to wash your hands before you begin cooking. l If vegetables you eat raw happen to touch raw meat or chicken. l If you eat meat or chicken that is not thoroughly cooked. l If you leave cooked food out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours.

Results: Risk Perceptions: Societal Level

Societal level risk perceptions: How common is it for people in the U.S. to get sick? l Because of contamination of food by germs. l Because of the way food is handled in their homes. l Because of the way food is handled in restaurants. l Do you think there has been more or less sickness from food over the past 5 years.

Results: Prior experience variables

Results: Food safety knowledge var.

Results: Information search var.

Distribution of Personal Risk Perception in the Population l Characteristics associated with increased personal behavior risk perception  Women  Middle age, (26-60)  Less education  No food preparation experience  Recent illness experience  More likely to look for food safety information  Less knowledge about how to kill food pathogens

Conclusions: l Consumers practice safe food behavior when they think about it. l They think about it when they perceive a risk. l They may not perceive a risk if they are confident they are controlling their risks. l Consumers may have mistaken ideas about which practices are effective at reducing risks.

Implications l Effective education challenges undue complacency. l Practice-specific information is likely to work better than general information. l Ideal message: Do you do it [specific practice] this way [practice specific information]?

Thinking Globally -- Working Locally A Conference on Food Safety Education